A huge thank you to our hardworking trustees this Trustees' Week, who volunteer their time, knowledge and expertise to further our work with survivors of rape and sexual abuse across Surrey.

What does a trustee do?

Trustees are volunteers who offer their time and knowledge to share responsibility for governing a charity and directing how it is managed and run.

Charity trustees have six main functions:

• Ensuring the charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit.
• Complying with the charity's governing document and the law.
• Acting in the charity's best interests.
• Managing charity resources responsibly.
• Acting with reasonable care and skill.
• Ensuring the charity is accountable.

Meet our trustees!

At RASASC Guildford, we currently have five trustees:

Simon White is our Chair. responsible for convening the board and overseeing its function. Simon is a chartered accountant with 35 years’ experience in the oil industry. He got involved with RASASC's work following the suicide of a family friend during a trial of historic childhood sexual abuse allegations.

Richard Rhydderch is our Vice Chair. Richard is a currently a strategic communications adviser to an NHS trust in London, he also brings experience of working for international welfare charities as well as public sector experience within the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office.

Grace Simmonds had a long career in nursing before becoming a trustee for RASASC, she was also involved with a national charity that offered support and counselling to women facing unintended pregnancy, abortion concerns, miscarriage and baby loss.

Julie Mead is our Treasurer. Julie brings over 15 years’ experience in the banking sector, and she currently works as an equity analyst for a large international bank in London.

Jane Anderson spent most of her career as a policy advisor in number of government departments including the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, and from 2013-2019, she was Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, where she learned about the work of RASASC, leading to her becoming one of our trustees.

We are so grateful to all our trustees for their ongoing support.

To find out more about the role of a charity trustee and what they do, visit GOV.UK.